"We have not abandoned you," Nile Breweries assures sorghum farmers in Teso 

Nile Breweries has assured sorghum farmers in Teso sub region of continuous market for their produce.

Farmers in Teso sub region are among those who have for long relied on white sorghum as a key source of livelihood due to the ready market and good prices offered by Nile Breweries.

Business has been smooth over the years until last year when the beer company went silent, leaving many farmers across the country with no alternative market.

"They harvested sorghum to November and up to now Nile Breweries has not taken the sorghum. Even up to now some children are still at home because Nile Breweries delayed to buy the sorghum to enable farmers pay school fees," a farmer said.

Apart from accumulated storage costs, the delay by Nile Breweries has left the farmers at the mercy of exploitation middlemen and speculators who buy off their produce at giveaway prices.

Emokori Charles a farmer from Kumi district said they expected to sell 1.7 million kilograms of sorghum but he has kept all his needs on hold awaiting a response from Nile Breweries.

We found him at Kumi Epuripur Farmers Association, an agency of nile breweries where he had come to follow up payment for his sorghum which he supplied earlier on credit.

Nile Breweries, Corporate Affairs manager Onapito Ekomoloit has described the crisis as a necessary delay attributing it to unavoidable factors including weather and delays financial processes.

Ekomoloit allayed fears of the farmers and reaffirmed the company's commitment to continue buying sorghum as agreed.

He however emphasized that the company will stick to the planned 2 million kilogrammes from the selected farmers to supplement its surplus stock from previous seasons to match its production needs.

"There are farmers who might have got seed from other sources, they may want to sell to us but we may not be able to help them, some seasons we have helped them when our stocks are not so high but currently our stocks are really very high and we can only take the 2 million kilos that we committed to," said Ekomoloit.

Ben Akabwai, the manager Acila Enterprises, one of the aggregator confirmed receipt of purchase order of 150,000 kilograms of sorghum from Nile Breweries.